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HSBC pre-tax profit up 16% at $19.9 bn in 2018
HONG KONG, Feb 19, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Banking giant HSBC said on Tuesday that
pre-tax profit rose 16 percent to $19.9 billion last year with growth across
its global businesses despite a “challenging external environment in the
fourth quarter”.
The results capped the first full year at the helm of the Asia-focused bank
for chief executive officer John Flint, who has vowed growth while keeping a
lid on costs as trade tensions between the United States and China rumble.
However, earnings in the last three months of 2018 came in below
expectations as Washington’s trade war began to bite globally and hammered
the stock markets, especially in Hong Kong and China.
Adjusted pretax profit fell one percent to $3.39 billion in October-
December, missing the $4.4 billion consensus average by Bloomberg News
derived from estimates compiled by the bank.
Global markets adjusted revenue was down $202 million to $1.1 billion over
the same period, while wealth management dropped 18 percent, also to $1.1
billion.
Overall the year saw strong growth for HSBC with net profit ballooning 30
percent to $12.6 billion while adjusted pre-tax profit rose three percent to
$21.7 billion.
The bank had to lay off tens of thousands of staff as part of a wide-
ranging overhaul that also saw it sell its Brazil operations in 2015.
But it showed a healthy doubling of profits by 2017, a year that also saw
it nominate Mark Tucker as chairman, breaking a longstanding tradition of
appointing insiders to the post.
In a statement attached to Tuesday’s earnings, Tucker and Flint said the
bank was prepared to weather fallout from both a possible deterioration in
the trade talks between Washington and Beijing and Britain’s impending
departure from the EU.
“The fundamentals for growth in Asia remain strong in spite of a softer
regional economic outlook,” Tucker said in a statement attached to the annual
report.
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“The system of global trade remains subject to political pressure, and
differences between China and the US will likely continue to inform sentiment
in 2019,” he added.
With Brexit looming, HSBC followed the other major British financial giants
in ring-fencing its UK bank.
“We continue to prepare for the UK’s departure from the EU” Flint said,
adding its operations in France “gives us a major advantage in this regard”.
BSS/AFP/SR/1950 HRS